Creativity and Adolescent Behavior

When students participate in extracurricular activities they learn lessons and concepts of leadership, teamwork, organization, analytical thinking, problem solving, and time management. In high school if a student wants to do a sport or other activity they will pick the activity that they like and enjoy. This is the kind of decision making skill that could help determine the type of career path for a student. By participating in extracurricular activities youth can find something they enjoy learn to use this in a career. “Participating in certain extracurricular activities having to do with the field that the student is interested in could help them find a job. If someone is looking at a resume for a potential employee, and they see they have experience or interest in what they are looking for, they will be more likely to hire that person” (Massoni). Having been apart of a particular extracurricular activity can be a positive influence in a job resume. This will cause students to find a new ambition in a career. Even on college applications these activities will affect if a student will be accepted, and in some circumstances many activities can earn a student thousands of dollars in scholarships (Massoni). Extracurricular activities can benefit students in teaching them long term commitments. When youth participate in

The key characteristics in creativity can support young children’s development in a number of ways. Emotionally they learn how to manage frustrations if a project isn’t going to plan or can feel happy and proud and a sense of achievement when it is completed. Socially children can build up self-confidence by working alongside or with others, creating something to share and thereby making friends.

The beauty of creativity is that it is abstract, yet ubiquitous: in art, music or how one decides to compose an essay. However, creativity has recently been declining among the human population. According to an article, named, “The Creativity Crisis,” by Newsweek.com in July 2010, authors, Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman, state, “the Torrance Test … indicates that the public’s “creativity quotient” has steadily crept downward since 1990” (Prompt 1). Bronson and Merryman report that the test, which evaluates one’s creativity, had been dispensed to myriads of people across the globe, and have concluded that creativity has been slowly diminishing. Kyung Hee Kim, professor at the College of William and Mary, also comments that this is most prevalent and grave among students from kindergarten through sixth grade (Prompt 1). Consequently, society, or in this case, the world fears that current students and future generations will not be nourished with the creativity required to thrive as individuals, affecting the world as a whole. Ultimately, this poses the question whether a creative thinking class, which solely focuses on the education of creativity, should be taught in the school. This school should impose a creative thinking class, due to the fact creativity is a vital element for the future and is the solution to the creative crisis.

Understand the concepts of creativity and creative learning and how these affect all aspects of young children’s learning and development.

I am not attempting to prove that creativity and independent thinking are not essential for developing youth, in fact they are key to the functionality of every adult. However, school is a preparation for a career in the adult world. The American education system prepares students for what the working world values most, the ability to .Throughout childhood, there will be other opportunities for adolescents to mature in ways that are not addressed in

Youth engage in an after school program to develop their life skills. The after school program focus on youth obtaining skills to manage their life (Harvey & Coleman, 1997). These skills includes conducting business, expanding education and; self-awareness and spiritual balance. Youth are taught self-determination to express their creativity. They are instructed to think innovatively to build within the areas they are interested rather than destroy their community (Harvey & Coleman,

For the entirety of the fall semester, I took on a project to create a three-page layout for a fictional campaign in National Geographic magazine about endangered species. The goal was to create different content for my portfolio, challenging my skills in photography and photo-manipulation. I transformed people into animals and used gel lighting and Photoshop to create my artwork (see Appendix A figure 1 & 2). At the end of the semester, I reviewed my completed pieces and two theorists best fit my creative process, Julie Burstein, and Teresa Amabile. Julie Burstein discusses the best way to foster creativity is by ‘letting go’ she outlines this in four lessons (Campbell and Dubois, “Artist Best practices” 25). These lessons include experiences, challenges, limitations and loss (Campbell and Dubois, “Artist Best practices” 25). While Teresa Amabile discusses how the theory of creativity is fostered through her componential model of creativity (Campbell and Dubois, “On theories of” 14). These include domain-relevant skills, creative thinking skills and motivation (Campbell and Dubois, “On theories of” 14). Both of these theorists go hand in hand providing me with the framework for my best work. This essay will discuss how Amabile’s theory for intrinsic motivation and Burstein’s lesson of experience and loss, align in my creative process to be conducive to my work.

Creativity is all about the 21st century skills and the future students. One form of creativity they will use is brainstorming. It includes elaborating, analyzing refining, and evaluating ideas to improve and maximize creative efforts (Syrett, 2002). Creativity involves originality, and working with peers to come up with ideas. It will allow you to fail and work on what went wrong and recreate it. They will have the tools that are needed to be creative. Creativity is an important aspect for every student to

Today’s education system has become focused on standardized intelligence testing and what works best for the majority. This system, although created to help the masses, is impersonal and only benefits a specific group of students who learn the best through testing. Those students who think creatively and use imagination are left behind. This is why intelligence tests are not accurate measurement of a child’s knowledge as it does not account for creativity and the child’s individual strengths. Changes need to be made within the school system. Instead of focusing on what is “correct” schools should be encouraging problem-solving through the process of making mistakes and failing. This challenges a student to learn about themselves and the world around them. When everything is already laid out for them it is easy to follow. There is no single way of thinking. By making a student have to think on their own it stimulates creativity and allows them to better connect concepts to real world situations.

A smart man said “Creativity is as important as literacy and we should treat it with the same standing.” (Ken Robinson-“Do schools kill creativity?”). There are multiple studies on how creativity helps improve a student’s mind. Project based learning is a huge creative booster for students. A math teacher from California uses projects to do math instead of using the text book. From doing this, she’s had more students pass her class then from when she was teaching straight from the text books. Instead of having standardized tests, using more creative techniques for students to enjoy the learning they’ve done and for them to show the higher officials what the students are learning. Creativity is the process of turning real world problems into an understanding by extending the minds cognitive processes. In Alabama, kindergartners are studying different ways to be creative.

One of the first webpages I visited from the suggested readings and other resources was the article “What I Wish I Knew About Creativity When I was 20.” This article grabbed my attention because I just turned 20 and I think creativity is very important. Perhaps the most important part of the article that I read was that trying and failing is better than not try at all. I think I’m scared of failing a lot, so I avoid doing what I feel like I will fail. All the other aspects discussed in the article, I believe help me understand creativity in use and creation.

The term creativity is used for the purpose of describing the ability that is concerned with the process of creating something new or valuable. This ability allows a person to surpass the rules, practices, methods, forms or similar kind of activities that the traditional society may be performing at that time. Creativity is one of the most important things that have allowed the people of the society to move forward and urge for development. All the development that has been made in various aspects of human life can be directly connected with the creativity. All the industry leaders of the world have secured this place because of the level of creativity and innovation that they showed. They used this creativity for creating something new that has allowed them to develop completely new methods for this purpose.

An exceedingly powerful way high-achieving students can hone in on their creativity is by being in a gifted education program. The main reason kids are pulled into these programs in the first place is their ability to see things different than other students, not necessarily their academic standpoint. Their perspective is different, and they’re able to use this perspective to tap their creativity into their academics. However, most public school teachers often have to focus on the lower achieving students more in order to make sure that these students are truly understanding the curriculum, leaving the higher achieving students with no focus on them whatsoever. Gifted education programs will typically pull kids out of their classes once a week and provide a program focusing solely on their strengths. Considering high achieving students typically don’t get this attention for the duration of the week, it’s extremely crucial to have this day to challenge them and push them to be their academic and creative best. These are students that could one day invent miraculous cures or even technology that will improve the average American’s day to day life, so it’s important to give them the attention they need to thrive.

Children by nature are curious, innovative, explorative and experimental. They tend to see the world differently with endless possibilities and opportunities. They are less hesitant to try new ideas and are also experts in expressing themselves in the form of art. In short, children are creative by birth. Since the early childhood setting is a hub for fostering these creative minds, expanding horizons, and creating future geniuses, creativity in early childhood development and curriculum provision holds utmost importance. As a result, creativity is important for Early Childhood development and therefore, creative experiences should be incorporated within the curriculum. This will be discussed in relation to current perspectives within the role and importance of creativity in Early Childhood education.

This course was a wonderful experience and it taught me a lot upon Biological (or Physical) Anthropology is the study of human races, origins,